how to take care of stray lions
by Elizabeth Blossom
Summary: Ned finds himself with an overeager guard dog.
1. Jaime I

New version. Still based on the same prompt: AU in which Jaime (teenage) follows Ned home to the North after Ned finds him killing Aerys in the throne room with Aerys still ordering "burn them all." Ned's pretty sure lions aren't suppose to be following you around every where like dogs.

Bonus: Disapproving Tywin writting letters for the return of his son.

There's a very good chance that this could end up Jaime/Ned. (I made Brandon alive for reason.) fem!Jon for the hell of it. (Also I have a problem.)

* * *

Without any finesse, Jaime shoved his golden sword through Aerys' back and the Mad King screeched. The sound was high and terrible, singing through the rafters of the Red Keep, and somehow the thought of _This must be what the dragons sounded like_ tore through Jaime's head.

As quickly as he had put the sword through his king's back, he took it out. Aerys fell to the ground and coughed up red-black blood._ Fire and blood,_ Jaime thought distantly. He felt disjointed, that somehow his body and mind had gotten disconnected and then somehow his mind had splintered in tiny pieces. He couldn't believe what he had just done and yet he was supremely aware of it. _That's the price for peace._

The Mad King looked up at him with purple eyes and smiled widely. "Kingslayer," he whispered. "You're a Kingslayer, boy. They'll never let you forget it."

Jaime shook. He could feel himself trembling, but no matter how much he commanded himself to, he couldn't seem to stop. His mind and body were still two separate entities of their own.

Jaime brought his sword up, to do what he had no idea. That knowledge was in some piece of his mind that had long ago left the others. Aerys eyes followed it, the smile not leaving his face. The Mad King knew that his death was coming, Jaime had already killed Rossart and he could not let the city burn. The Mad King seemed content though to simply watch Jaime crash and burn.

Jaime never knew though what he had intended to do. To cut off Aerys head or to slash his throat or to drop his own sword and walk out of the throne room to let Aerys die slowly and painfully or something else entirely.

Ned Stark stopped him.

"Ser Jaime!" he heard the older man yell and both he and Aerys turned to look at him.

Eddard Stark stood in the doorway of the throne, looking more like a king than anyone Jaime had ever seen before. His armor shone brightly and was the color as his eyes, a dark, harsh gray that made you remember every horrible thing you had ever done, though Jaime could only think of one other thing that he had ever done as worse as this in the eyes of the Seven. He wasn't about to stop loving his sister though and with that thought, everything snapped back into clarity.

The Mad King's blood and his weakening laugh. Ned Stark's wide gray eyes. His own trembling and the desperate need to be sick. Jaime turned away from them both and fall to his knees, throwing up what little he had managed to eat over the past few days. He heard Aerys laughter, stronger than before and Jaime just wanted him to die. But no, the Mad King had to haunt him for as long as he possibly could. He began to fall apart again and everything slowly grew distant and far and Jaime stopped wanting Aerys to die and started wanting to die himself. Just before he could come to a definitive plan to do it however, he felt a hand on his shoulder.

Jaime looked up into Ned Stark's gray eyes and wondered if the man was going to kill him. That would be wonderful. A Kingslayer shouldn't be allowed to live, and at least it wouldn't be by his own hand. At least Jaime would still end up with that shred of honor in his death. Before he left himself be killed though, he needed to let Ned Stark why he had done it. Why he had forgotten these vows but just might have fulfilled higher ones.

"'Burn them all,' he said. That's what he wanted to do. 'Burn them all.'" Ned Stark's brow furrowed into confusion for only half a second before the meaning must have clicked in his mind and his eyes grew wide and fear grew in them.

Jaime wondered if Stark knew that he had his father's eyes.

Ned Stark turned and looked at Aerys, who was still smiling wildly, his lips stained with blood. "Are you the new king? No matter, I'll defeat you all. I'll become a dragon reborn, and I'll make you the king of ashes, Stark." Aerys began to laugh again and Jaime raised his hands to his ears. The sound was too terrible, too mocking for him to listen to any longer. He kept his eyes on the Mad King though, and somehow without sound, it seemed even worse.

But then Ned Stark drew his sword, Valyrian steel that glinted like ice in the sun before it begins to melt, a dark gray like his eyes, and took Aerys head off his shoulder. No words were spoken, though Jaime would have doubted he would have heard them if they were.

For a moment, the only sound in the throne room was their heavy breathing and then Ned Stark sheathed his sword, still wet with the Mad King's blood and walked out.

Jaime just watched him go.


	2. Ned I

*comes* *drops this* *runs off*

* * *

Ned returned back to King's Landing with his sister's body and his sister's daughter. _My daughter_, Ned reminded himself. _Joanna is my daughter, not Lyanna's._ He couldn't let himself think anything otherwise. Thinking so might end up with him saying so and only the gods knew what saying so might bring.

Ned was greeted with either reverence or hatred as he rode through the streets in the city, Joanna swaddled tightly in his arms. Howland Reed had offered to carry her, Wylla too, but Ned had refused on the basis that this little girl was the last thing his sister had ever given him and Ned wanted to treasure every minute he could.

Lyanna had always given him the best gifts.

Ned had heard many tales of how he had killed King Aerys, but according to Stannis Baratheon after Ned had helped end the siege on Storm's End, the official tale was that Ned had stabbed King Aerys in the back before taking his head. Ned only wondered briefly if Jaime Lannister had spread that rumor, or if that was simply how everyone was explaining the fact that there were two wounds.

_"__Why should we kneel before our King's killer?" Arthur Dayne asked. Ned couldn't think of a good answer. "Tell me, did Jaime Lannister at least put up some form of fight when you did it? Did you have to nearly kill him to get to Aerys? Tell me, Stark, I wish to know."_

_Dayne seemed desperate to hear it, and Ned answered the only way he could. "He did."_

_The Sword of the Morning closed his eyes for a minute. When he opened them, he simply said, "So now it begins."_

_Ned's mouth went dry. "Now it begins."_

He arrived at the Red Keep exhausted and wanted nothing more to sleep for a hundred years. He needed to find some accommodation for Joanna though, and show Robert Lyanna's body. Ned had not heard any news from Robert since he sent the letter informing him about her death. He did not expect any. He would stay with Robert, and his grief, for as long as he could, but eventually Ned would return North to Brandon and Benjen.

He was greeted with Stannis Baratheon and a man that he recognized, but couldn't place a name to. Stannis walked up to him. "Robert has been holed up in his room ever since he heard the news." Ned nodded absentmindedly. Right now, he wasn't that focused on Robert. All he could think about was Joanna and the North and sleep.

"I need rooms," he said, the exhaustion surely clear in his voice. "For me, Howland, Wylla, and my daughter. I'll go see Robert as soon as everything is settled."

Stannis frowned, and turned to look at Joanna, for the first time realizing who, _what_, she was. "Very well," he said slowly. "Everything for you has been arranged, and I'll find someone to arrange the others."

An hour later, they were all situated in rooms, Ned still holding Joanna. With a sigh, he nearly flopped down on the bed, keeping his daughter safe in his arms. Joanna gripped the simple white tunic he was wearing and he sighed, feeling some sort of contentment for the first time in days.

He knew it would not last long, and so was determined to enjoy it while it lasted.

He wondered what would happen if he proclaimed Joanna as the rightful Queen of Westeros. Probably just more chaos and death. Robert had never simply let something go, no matter how small (and this most certainly was not), not even for Ned.

Ned was nearly half asleep, one hand rubbing his daughter's back, their breathing melding together, when a knock on the door woke them both up however.

With wide eyes, Ned jolted up and Joanna started fussing. He continued rubbing her back, hoping that was enough to calm her down. It seemed to be, but Joanna also seemed to be a remarkably calm and quiet child. It was definitely not a trait she got from her mother, and Ned wondered if it was from Rhaegar. From the stories he had heard, it seemed like it was.

He walked to the door, Joanna still in his arms, and opened the door.

Jaime Lannister stood in front of it.

The boy (really a man, but the few times Ned had seen him he looked so incredibly young) stood in front of him. He stood up straight, but the nervous energy vibrating out of him made Ned think that it was just pure training that kept him from jumping out of his own skin.

"Lord Stark," Jaime said, sounding overformal to Ned's ears for some reason. Then again, Ned was the only person in the world that knew Jaime's secret. "May I come in?"

Ned held open the door as his response. Jaime slowly walked in, and Ned closed the door behind him.

"I'm assuming this is your daughter?" Jaime asked, breaking the awkward silence as they stood in the room.

Ned nodded. "Yes," he said bluntly.

Jaime nodded to that. "She looks like you," he said, and once again, they descended into awkward silence.

For a minute, it lingered. Ned broke it again by saying, "Did you come to me for a reason? I need to give Joanna to Wylla for a feeding, and then see Robert. We need to . . ." Do what? Talk, grieve, moan, or discuss, what was the best word? Ned didn't know.

Jaime looked at him, his green eyes wide and yet difficult to read. "I just wanted to say thank you, Lord Stark."

Ned looked at him blankly. "What for, Ser Jaime? You didn't kill the king.

"I did."

* * *

I really hope you like this, and though it wasn't worth the wait for as long as it was, I do hope you think it was worth _some_ sort of wait.


End file.
